WARNING!: GRAPHIC IMAGES INCLUDED! IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE GRAPHIC VIOLENCE I RECOMMEND LEAVING NOW!
Hello everyone and welcome to the third Raiders of The Lost Media of 2019. This time around I tell you all about the lost 130 minutes to the 1997 science fiction horror Event Horizon. Now if any of you read my Top 8 Director's Cuts I Want To See then you probably saw me bring this up before but in more a short abridged version. Well today I give you the full story of this movie's lost footage. Let's begin.
Part One - What is Event Horizon?
Event Horizon is a 1997 science fiction horror movie directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and written by Philip Eisner. It tells the story of how a crew of astronauts were sent on a rescue mission to a ship called the Event Horizon. They soon discover the ship was an experiment engine that opened a riff in the space time continuum and let in a hostile entity that possess the ship.
Part Two - Early Development
After making 1995's Mortal Kombat a commercial success in the States, Paul W.S. Anderson (known for the Resident Evil films) was giving lots of screenplay opportunities. Two of those included the Mortal Kombat sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) and the upcoming X-Men (2000) but Anderson turned down those offers because he wanted to make a R-rated horror movie as suppose to making another PG-13 flick (honestly he dodged a bullet by not accepting to do Mortal Kombat: Annihilation). Paramount Pictures then sent Philip Eisner's script for Event Horizon, a film they've been trying to make along with producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin. Eisner said when he first pitched the concept to Gordon he described it as a "haunted house story in space", both the producers thought the story had potential to become a motion picture. Eisner would later go on to say that Gordon liked the idea enough to trust him to do it. Anderson's initial reaction to the script was that it bore a striking resemblance to 1979's Alien, while producer Jeremy Bolt felt like it was a "terrific concept" but also felt like it was "very dense" in terms of length and the storyline was a "bit lost". Anderson also disliked the fact he was basically going to direct a copy of Alien so he decided to give the script a major rewrite. Anderson had in his mind a "classic haunted house movie" that would incorporate influences from classic horror films like 1963's The Haunting and 1980's The Shining because those films enforce a suspense from the unknown. Also around this time Anderson was interested in the concept of Hell as well as the idea of the ship itself being possessed as suppose to it being an alien consciousness that is doing it.
Part Three - What Ever Happened to The Deleted Footage?
Paul W.S. Anderson explained that because of the Directors Guild of America directors are usually given a 10-week editing period to produce a final cut of their movie, however this wasn't the case for this film. Paramount Pictures really wanted a big hit on their hands before they released James Cameron's Titanic. But with a short production schedule, an approaching release date, and principal photography not being completed it was clear to Paramount that they had to cut the editing period to six weeks instead of the usual ten weeks and Anderson agreed with this decision with Paramount that way the film could be released in August. The main unit wrapped but this was the time that Anderson had to start editing the movie but he still had two weeks with the second unit because of this time was shortened of what could have been spent in post-production. So Anderson had no choice but to make a rough cut of the film. During test screenings the cut was very poorly received, the main complaint being the extreme amounts of gore. In fact it was so gory that according to Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt some test audience members fainted. Paramount was also with the test audience when viewing this cut and also were shocked about the amounts of violence and they demanded a shorter length time with a decrease of the more gruesome scenes. While Anderson believed that the movie was considered too long he also felt like Paramount had him edit a movie that was too short, and thought the movie would have benefited with restoring 10 minutes of missing footage, including the deleted gore scenes. Due to a successful DVD release the studio was very interested in making a director's cut of Event Horizon something even Paul W.S. Anderson was excited about doing. However there was a huge problem, the footage was not handled properly and much of it was gone. The deleted scenes were soon discovered in a salt mine in Transylvania (yes footage of a horror movie was located in Transylvania. What are the odds?) and had sadly rotted away due to how they were stored. So with the footage pretty much destroyed a director's cut was cancelled and instead a special edition two-DVD set was released, the special edition featured one deleted scene, two extended scenes, and a few shots of deleted material in the making-of feature.
Part Four - Known Deleted Scenes
Known deleted scenes included a meeting with Weir and people in charged in which they discuss Event Horizon, more backstory for Cooper and Justin, a stronger explanation for Justin entering the black hole, a deleted backstory on the relationship between Starck and Miller, additional explaining the gateway to hell/what the black hole is, Miller finding a tooth floating in Event Horizon, a longer version of Peters hallucinating her son's mangled legs being covered in maggots, a scene where Weir hallucinates that Justin turns into his wife Claire, a more bloodier version of Claire's suicide, a longer version of the scene where Miller finds D.J.'s dead body with his guts on the table, and a longer version of the "Vision From Hell" scene during Miller's final fight with Weir with more shots of the Event Horizon crew being tortured. The "blood orgy" scene was also notable longer. Because Anderson was sometimes too busy filming other scenes, second-unit director Vadim Jean had to film some parts of those scenes. The film's ending was also different from it's theatrical cut. In fact the original ending was a combination of two unused alternate endings that were filmed. One didn't have a jump scare when the two survivors are found by another rescue crew and Starck hallucinates that she sees Weir, although there is a similar version that included Starck hearing the screams of the Event Horizon crew and screams in fear before Cooper wakes her up. The other ending had Miller fighting with the burned man from his visions at the core instead of Weir, but was changed because of the negative feedback from the test screening.
Part Five - The Remaining Footage
Now people have been able to dig up some of the footage and/or photos of the deleted scenes but the videos are in poor quality. You can watch/view them here but like I said at the top they're pretty gruesome so if you're not interested it in just turn back now.
Event Horizon is a 1997 science fiction horror movie directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and written by Philip Eisner. It tells the story of how a crew of astronauts were sent on a rescue mission to a ship called the Event Horizon. They soon discover the ship was an experiment engine that opened a riff in the space time continuum and let in a hostile entity that possess the ship.
Part Two - Early Development
After making 1995's Mortal Kombat a commercial success in the States, Paul W.S. Anderson (known for the Resident Evil films) was giving lots of screenplay opportunities. Two of those included the Mortal Kombat sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) and the upcoming X-Men (2000) but Anderson turned down those offers because he wanted to make a R-rated horror movie as suppose to making another PG-13 flick (honestly he dodged a bullet by not accepting to do Mortal Kombat: Annihilation). Paramount Pictures then sent Philip Eisner's script for Event Horizon, a film they've been trying to make along with producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin. Eisner said when he first pitched the concept to Gordon he described it as a "haunted house story in space", both the producers thought the story had potential to become a motion picture. Eisner would later go on to say that Gordon liked the idea enough to trust him to do it. Anderson's initial reaction to the script was that it bore a striking resemblance to 1979's Alien, while producer Jeremy Bolt felt like it was a "terrific concept" but also felt like it was "very dense" in terms of length and the storyline was a "bit lost". Anderson also disliked the fact he was basically going to direct a copy of Alien so he decided to give the script a major rewrite. Anderson had in his mind a "classic haunted house movie" that would incorporate influences from classic horror films like 1963's The Haunting and 1980's The Shining because those films enforce a suspense from the unknown. Also around this time Anderson was interested in the concept of Hell as well as the idea of the ship itself being possessed as suppose to it being an alien consciousness that is doing it.
Part Three - What Ever Happened to The Deleted Footage?
Paul W.S. Anderson explained that because of the Directors Guild of America directors are usually given a 10-week editing period to produce a final cut of their movie, however this wasn't the case for this film. Paramount Pictures really wanted a big hit on their hands before they released James Cameron's Titanic. But with a short production schedule, an approaching release date, and principal photography not being completed it was clear to Paramount that they had to cut the editing period to six weeks instead of the usual ten weeks and Anderson agreed with this decision with Paramount that way the film could be released in August. The main unit wrapped but this was the time that Anderson had to start editing the movie but he still had two weeks with the second unit because of this time was shortened of what could have been spent in post-production. So Anderson had no choice but to make a rough cut of the film. During test screenings the cut was very poorly received, the main complaint being the extreme amounts of gore. In fact it was so gory that according to Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt some test audience members fainted. Paramount was also with the test audience when viewing this cut and also were shocked about the amounts of violence and they demanded a shorter length time with a decrease of the more gruesome scenes. While Anderson believed that the movie was considered too long he also felt like Paramount had him edit a movie that was too short, and thought the movie would have benefited with restoring 10 minutes of missing footage, including the deleted gore scenes. Due to a successful DVD release the studio was very interested in making a director's cut of Event Horizon something even Paul W.S. Anderson was excited about doing. However there was a huge problem, the footage was not handled properly and much of it was gone. The deleted scenes were soon discovered in a salt mine in Transylvania (yes footage of a horror movie was located in Transylvania. What are the odds?) and had sadly rotted away due to how they were stored. So with the footage pretty much destroyed a director's cut was cancelled and instead a special edition two-DVD set was released, the special edition featured one deleted scene, two extended scenes, and a few shots of deleted material in the making-of feature.
Part Four - Known Deleted Scenes
Known deleted scenes included a meeting with Weir and people in charged in which they discuss Event Horizon, more backstory for Cooper and Justin, a stronger explanation for Justin entering the black hole, a deleted backstory on the relationship between Starck and Miller, additional explaining the gateway to hell/what the black hole is, Miller finding a tooth floating in Event Horizon, a longer version of Peters hallucinating her son's mangled legs being covered in maggots, a scene where Weir hallucinates that Justin turns into his wife Claire, a more bloodier version of Claire's suicide, a longer version of the scene where Miller finds D.J.'s dead body with his guts on the table, and a longer version of the "Vision From Hell" scene during Miller's final fight with Weir with more shots of the Event Horizon crew being tortured. The "blood orgy" scene was also notable longer. Because Anderson was sometimes too busy filming other scenes, second-unit director Vadim Jean had to film some parts of those scenes. The film's ending was also different from it's theatrical cut. In fact the original ending was a combination of two unused alternate endings that were filmed. One didn't have a jump scare when the two survivors are found by another rescue crew and Starck hallucinates that she sees Weir, although there is a similar version that included Starck hearing the screams of the Event Horizon crew and screams in fear before Cooper wakes her up. The other ending had Miller fighting with the burned man from his visions at the core instead of Weir, but was changed because of the negative feedback from the test screening.
Part Five - The Remaining Footage
Now people have been able to dig up some of the footage and/or photos of the deleted scenes but the videos are in poor quality. You can watch/view them here but like I said at the top they're pretty gruesome so if you're not interested it in just turn back now.
And last but not least someone on Imgur uploaded a lot of photos. But yet again If you're very sensitive to graphic violence DO NOT LOOK AT THESE. Hell even I got a little woozy looking at them. So here they are, just click right here.
Part Six - Is There Still a Possibility?
Now in my Top 8 Director's Cuts I Want To See post I said the chances of seeing this were unlikely. However I failed to do more research of the subject, because during an Event Horizon Q&A in 2011 when asked about the footage Paul W.S. Anderson did say it would "never" be available because the footage is gone forever. But then in 2012 during an interview at that year's San Diego Comic-Con he announced that producer Lloyd Levin had found a VHS copy of his original cut. Anderson would later go on to say that after his done with Resident Evil: Retribution he planned to watch it for the first time since making the film. Then in January 2017 Anderson would later retract what he said, saying a director's cut will never be released because the footage doesn't exist anymore. When asked about he VHS tape, he said neither him nor Lloyd have watched the VHS copy because Levin moved to Spain however he said that he is still excited to watch it at some point.
Now sure that does sound like a bummer what with Anderson saying the footage doesn't exist and going on to say he hasn't seen the VHS tape. But really think about it, if Lloyd Levin does in deed have a copy of the deleted footage of the original cut of Event Horizon like he's claiming that would put this movie close to the Snyder cut of Justice League. What I mean by that is it's close to having a director's cut what with there being existing footage of the original cut. So I say if you've been waiting for this film to have it's original scenes intact I say don't give up hope quite yet.
So guys, that's all for me. Come back on Thursday, October 24th for my review of the Stanley Kubrick classic, The Shining. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.
No comments:
Post a Comment